Every fortnight Kevin writes a "Kev's Column" for the Herald Express and you can read the latest edition (Published on Wednesday 31st March 2021) below:
Unlock
This week sees two welcome steps on the road to ending lockdown.
The first was the changes on Monday which saw a range of outdoor sports and activities return, along with the “Rule of 6” for outside gatherings and the formal end of the “Stay At Home” rule. The next will be tomorrow (1st April) when for thousands of people in our bay the advice to Shield at Home will come to an end.
These are significant steps and follow the fall in case numbers across our nation, plus the success of the vaccination programme, means we can look forward to further progress in 2 weeks’ time, with a return to “normal” still pencilled in for June.
As we look ahead there will be challenges, not least restarting our iconic tourism industry, but some opportunities as well. For too long many of the brightest and best from our bay have felt the need to move away to find career opportunities. Yet if you can work from home why move, when your digital “office” could be in your hometown?
Digital career opportunities, pursued from home, will be a vital ingredient for our future growth.
New Plan For Immigration
The Home Secretary has launched a major consultation on the “New Plan For Immigration”.
Following a major overhaul of the rules for legal migration, including for students and skilled workers, attention is now being turned to the asylum system and the process for removing those who have no right to remain and foreign nationals who have committed serious criminal offences.
The UK’s current asylum system is broken, with genuine refugee cases often stuck behind those who have raised multiple claims purely to frustrate their removal from the UK and game the system (Often raising issues or claims at the last minute having had many opportunities to do so beforehand), with taxpayers left to pick up the bill for wasted legal costs.
The UK currently has 109,000 outstanding asylum cases. Almost 73 per cent of these claims have been in the asylum system for over one year and 62 per cent of UK asylum claims were made by those entering illegally-for example by small boats, lorries or without visas.
Yet the system must be fair as well, hence the plan announced includes measures to reform citizenship laws to correct historical anomalies and moves to ensure permanent residence is granted to those resettled to the UK directly from regions of conflict via accredited routes.
This is an area where no change is not an option and the new plan is a welcome move which includes much needed reforms. If you would like to take part in the consultation just email me at [email protected] and I will forward the link.
Surgery Times
Due to the current restrictions I have had to cancel my regular face to face advice surgeries.
I hope to restart them as soon as possible, but in the meantime a telephone call appointment can be arranged. Please note these telephone surgeries are for urgent personal matters, such as welfare, immigration, housing, problems accessing support and benefits, rather than to discuss policy or the wider situation.
You can either email me at [email protected] or leave a message on 01803 214989 and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.
